Wings of Fire

Inspector Ian Rutledge struggles to settle back into his duties at Scotland Yard after returning from France after WW 1 with shell shock. However the murder of a colonel tests his fragile sanity to the limit when the only witness is also a shell-shocked veteran, much reviled by the villagers for his condition.

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This is the second book, and Hamish (the voice in his head) is a little less intrusive, which I appreciated. It must be distracting having someone telling you what to do all the time. It makes me appreciate the struggles of street people, who seem to be conversing with someone I can not see. Ian Rutledge's boss seems to assign him to the wild goose chase cases. He successfully pulled off the first one, so he's sent out to solve two suicides and an accident at the request of a woman who really wants confirmation that one of the suicides loves her, not the woman with whom he committed suicide. What she gets is a string of murders in her family. She doesn't want to have her life disrupted. The village doesn't want to have their view of the prominent, kindly family disrupted; but that is the result of Rutledge undertaking her request. Whether the solution to the crimes brought anyone relief or closure is doubtful. I felt as though I was going through the painstaking collection of evidence along with the villagers and the local police. It was sometimes irritating, but necessary to the resolution of the story. I hope for better things as the series progresses, because I really have gotten interested in Rutledge and hope he finds a better position than he has been given.

I really loved this one. I have read everyone of this series I could get a hold of and the feeling of dread and foreboding was conveyed so eloquently. I don't understand how a mother and son writing team can write a book so thoroughly captivating and seem like a single author. I guess great minds think alike.

Just an okay read, but it did captivate me enough to finish it. I found the plotting and Rutledge's investigation a little far fetched but, as always, the characterizations are pretty good, and I had some involvement by the end. Not one of my favorite Ian Rutledge books. The plotting may have been too ambitious to carry the story.